Phantom

by hatokasai

co-authored: @winged-souls, @exed, @gon777, @starling

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.89

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.63

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★2.89

Theme★★★★★★★★★★2.54

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.13

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.66

Humor★★★★★★★★★★1.84

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.07

Hello all!
First jam I've done in 3D and first Ludum dare I've done in 3ish years. Working in a team of 5! Our team dynamic included a sound designer, a composer, 2 programmers and 1 artist!
We all worked really hard on this and I hope our passion for the project shows in the final product (despite some rushed aspects)
Please enjoy; Phantom!!

:star: STORY: Tom walks in an ever present night, hook at the ready. As he descends into the shadows, bare feet brushed by the slimes and the cold floor, he finds his fear growing. But who will he face in that darkness, other than... himself?*

:star: HOW TO PLAY:
WASD - walk |
mouse movement - aim |
click - use hookshot / use menu item

:star: CREDITS:
programming: Elliot (exed) & Gordon (gon777) |
music: starling |
sound design: Winged Souls |
art: Max Phoenix//PorpleFish (HatoKasai)

*there was going to be dialogue, but it was cut due to deadline sadface

Comments27

blobo27 Apr 2021, 02:39

I like how the character's weapon doubles as a grapple hook. Cool idea, and the scenes in game look nice. the music was definitely the highlight of the game! Great work.

starling27 Apr 2021, 02:47

@100th-coin omg thank you so much, going to cry hearing you say you liked the music haha (can't take credit for any of the other parts of the game but the team did a great job!)

mlkvr27 Apr 2021, 03:04

Definately music and also sound design is great I didn't press play to listen the whole song your hard work can be clearly seen it's hard to see combat AI in a jam game unfortunately I had some fps problems but probably it's about my machine, Congrats to you all :v:

Chironyx27 Apr 2021, 03:13

The music is incredible, I really hope to see you up there in the nominees for best audio!
The game itself looks really good, I wish I had a little more context as to what the game IS though, I don't know who I am, what I'm fighting and why (they look like adorable little slimes?)
And I'm not sure if level 3 (where you fight the person) is the final one or not, but if it isn't - I got stuck there, and if it is, I wish I had some indication that I finished the game~

HatoKasaiauthor27 Apr 2021, 03:14

@mlkvr
Thanks for the comment! Sorry to hear about the framerate issues, what are the specs of your PC? I'm planning on optimizing the game further, and knowing the specs could help alot. Glad you liked the music :D

HatoKasaiauthor27 Apr 2021, 03:17

@chironyx
Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you like the final look of the game. We had a script planned for the game that would tell the story in speech bubbles, but this was cut in the final rush to get everything ready for submission. Hopefully we can get more story elements implemented in a further version of the game! Thankyou for playing our game :)

mlkvr27 Apr 2021, 03:25

@hatokasai My specs are good but system automatically selected second gpu I guess you know the embedded one that might caused the problem
edit : yeah that was, Intel HD graphics 4000 instead of RTX 2060 hahah I don't think you need to optimize more but I suggest that a webgl port would be nice

Chironyx27 Apr 2021, 03:37

@hatokasai That's okay, I had to cut out my lore parts too! happens all the time in Jams - if I'd still write a short line of context about the story in the description!~

mind0o27 Apr 2021, 09:22

Hi, I quite like the music and the idea in general. Although I feel like the grapple hook is under utilized, as in it cant be used for much other than attacking. It is slow to fire so it is not good for dodging projectiles. Additionally, the game is a bit too dark, making it hard to see, and it lacks "juice'. So getting hit or hitting an enemy doesn't register much (no sound effect, or shake or something).
Good effort and a good game. Very atmospheric.

HatoKasaiauthor27 Apr 2021, 12:10

@mind0o
Hello! Thanks for the feedback! we were initially planning to have a couple of puzzles utilizing the grapple hook planned, but cut them due to time restraints. I'm glad you see the potential in the mechanic and I hope we can push it further! I definitely want to rework the lighting in the levels and get more comfortable with URP. Because the project only had 1 artist I was spread pretty thin, if I had the time I would have done a hit react animation and added some more polish, hopefully I can find the time in the coming weeks. Thanks for playing our game :D

kr4ft3r27 Apr 2021, 15:59

There is some good idea hiding in there, and you definitely score high in atmosphere. Great surrounding, player character and music. Some story is felt, even though it is not told.
As for the flaws, you are well aware of them. LD is an exercise in cutting down on the project's ambition in order to round it up as much as possible. Finishing only one level that shows most of the game implemented would work better. Still, it was an interesting experience, and a glimpse into an alternate world.

jk500028 Apr 2021, 18:37

The game idea is simple and good. Okay the game is a bit dark, and the AI is not the best, but it's all not too bad for a jam game. The music was really good, but I am not sure it totally fits the rest of the games atmosphere. I know it sounds like I really don't like your game, but I did have fun playing it.

miej29 Apr 2021, 03:50

oh man that music was amazing. nice game concept too! didnt realize until after i killed the boss guy that i could use it to move to walls. maybe it its reach was a bit longer? cool game concept, and nice execution!

Maybeagoose29 Apr 2021, 18:36

it's too dark there was almost nothing visible on my monitor:(

Substain29 Apr 2021, 18:59

The graphics were cool (sometimes a bit dark). Maybe the enemies might not need to come all at once. I didn't find an exit in the third level, but I stayed for a bit to listen to the music :)

ardorugus30 Apr 2021, 02:30

Feels like a lot of work. The idea is to follow the light and fight through phantoms, still, I thought green phantoms are good for you, no? The last level (if it's really the last one, but I got stuck there) is like fighting your own shadow, did I get it right? If that's the case, I really believed we should match our green weapons at the same time in order to merge and become one. Until I shot him from behind a few times. The music is evocating, yet I don't see it quite fits the mood of the game. Some simple pseudo sci-fi sfx would have done the good job there. Still, craftly done!

VPhyre30 Apr 2021, 05:03

Hello friend, I believe that your interpretation of the topic is quite interesting. I think that facing yourself can be something really deep. In general, the controls are good, I think the hookshot mechanics are well worked out. But I don't know if I was able to fully enjoy his game, since after defeating the "boss", I was left with no object. I even understand that this must have happened because of the gamejam deadline. So as a suggestion I think you could put a final screen or even credits (note: If there is a credits screen or something, I'm sorry I wasn't able to reach it haha). Anyway it was a very well done job, the graphics are good as well as the sound. Congratulations.

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:27

@kr4ft3r
Hello Kr4fter thanks for your feedback! I'm glad you see the potential in the concepts. Alot of work on the programmers end was focused on getting the AI working, map systems up and getting the player control smoothed out. We have a script planned for the game and have talked at length at how we plan on introducing the story's concepts, I hope we will be able to finish this game sometime soon! Thanks for playing and I hope you had fun!

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:29

@jk5000
Hello jk5,000! I'm glad you thought the game was good :) I'm sorry that the vibe of the game didn't match the music too well. I feel like the music was what we wanted the game to be and the art is what the game turned out to be, hopefully with some time and consideration I can get that bit up to scratch too! Glad you had fun, thanks for playing!

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:32

@miej
Hello Miej! Glad you liked the game, the hook - wall movement was a secondary thought, like a "why not" kinda deal, maybe making it speed you up a bit more would also help it be useful. Thanks for playing!

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:33

@maybeagoose
Sorry about that, I'm not sure if I can patch a games lighting after the jam and it'll still be within the rules, but I am planning on upgrading the art and potentially putting the game on a store somewhere. Thanks for giving the game a shot!

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:34

@substain
Thanks for playing our game, Substain! There was originally plans for a credits scene to take place after the 3rd (boss) level, but we didn't end up with the time to incorporate it. Hopefully with the time we have after the jam we can make the game feel more full!

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:36

@ardorugus
Hello Ardorugus, interesting thoughts on the color designs, I would have never come up with that! I shamefully couldn't come up with the time to make a texture for the chain, so it's currently uninententionally green. Hopefully we can change that in a further update. Thanks for playing, hope you enjoyed it nevertheless!

HatoKasaiauthor30 Apr 2021, 08:39

@vphyre
Hey bud! I'm glad you liked our interpretation of the genre, we put quite a bit of thought into it. You are spot on with the lack-of-credits being due to a deadline, we had credits music made up and everything! Hopefully we can patch that in soon ;-O so glad you liked the graphics, I put alot of work into them! Thanks for playing :D

Maybeagoose30 Apr 2021, 09:01

@hatokasai try baking the light

AhSpike1 May 2021, 05:51

The main game mechanic is a very neat idea. I also like the music. Good job.

oc1d1 May 2021, 08:20

Think I made it to the end with 1 health? I defeated a character that looked like me :D
Cool that you put music and sounds, that is very important!

Improvements:
* Try to put a direct zip download link, I had to fiddle around with Drive to download the zip file only. It started to compress it again etc. Maybe create an Itch.io account.
* Lighting is very dark.
* The shooting(?) color is very bright green and does not really fit, maube use an asset or premade effect.
* could not tell how much life the final enemy had?
* put an ending / restart screen :)

Thanks, I enjoyed it :)

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